Chris Hemsworth Discusses THOR 2, THE AVENGERS & SWATH

HC: “Thor 2″ is around the corner. Are you excited to work with “Game of Thrones” director Alan Taylor?

CH: Yeah, yeah, actually my wife got me into “Game of Thrones,” and we started sort of on the Internet watching them every week and became obsessed with them. And then I was given the whole series because Alan was meeting to do “Thor 2.” What I loved is [that the show] had a sort of mythical element to it, yet it was grounded in a really organic reality. And that’s what I think would be nice about “Thor 2″ — if there were more sort of tangible environments to be involved in. The first “Thor” was sort of science-fiction, and there were a lot of sets and things. It would be nice to kind of have Asgard as somewhat relatable and have big waterfalls and cliffs and mountains, and then have in the distance maybe several moons or suns or some sort of science-fiction element. But I think as an audience, it’s much easier to be drawn in if it’s something you feel a part of.

HC: You’ve been with this character for a while now. How have you developed Thor since the first film? What changes did you make for “The Avengers”?

CH: Look, obviously I didn’t write the script. Joss did. But one of my earlier conversations was what worked so well in “Thor” was, I think, the naïveté of that character. That’s where the humor played so well. But we left the film with a maturity to him, so we couldn’t have that same attitude with things. It was the “Crocodile Dundee” kind of thing. You know, a fish out of water, and that’s where the comedy was, but we couldn’t redo that. And also the concern that “Thor 2″ was going to come, but how do we not take away from that story line and have a diversion here. I think [Joss] did a great job of giving “Thor” a very personal objective — it’s his brother caught in chaos — and a nice kind of segue through the Jane Foster/ Natalie Portman’s character — she had to be put aside for this story because it was too dangerous, which works, ’cause now we can pick that up in our sequel. But it was kind of like the maturity he learned from the first film was now put to the test in this one. He might have once upon a time wanted to come and tear his brother’s head off or tear everyone else’s head off, you know, that barbaric kind of rage, but he had to temper that and show some maturity.

HC: Like his father.

CH: Yeah, that’s the objective. That’s who he’s sort of hoping to be.

HC: What did you learn from “The Avengers” and “Thor” that you were able to bring to “Snow White and the Huntsman”?

CH: I remember years ago, an acting teacher said to me, “Vulnerability is such a great asset on screen.” And I think in life, too. Vulnerability, it’s the heart of the truth of who we are. The vulnerability of you doubting something, it’s usually based around a fear of showing who you truly really are. You put on some sort of bravado or mask or something, and there was a vulnerability to Thor, but also an incredible sort of strength. And any time you thought the character fell into an arrogant sort of world, hopefully you empathized with him because, you know, there was something he was quite uncertain about. And the Huntsman, he was a pretty damaged character. He doesn’t start out as a hero or privileged by any means; he’s the drunken brawler and mercenary. And it was nice to have that more grounded in reality, that character. His wounds or vulnerability were nice to sort of contrast with also a strength and a humor.